


No Postcards From the Edge

by estepheia



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Ficlet, Gen, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:00:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25695451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/estepheia/pseuds/estepheia
Summary: What happens to Riley Finn after "As You Were."
Relationships: Riley Finn/Samantha Finn
Kudos: 5





	No Postcards From the Edge

**Author's Note:**

> Buffy: So, are you and Sam headed back to Central America? Or is that classified?  
> Riley: Nepal.  
> Buffy: Sounds fun.  
> Riley: I'll send you a postcard.
> 
> Written 2006

**No Postcard From the Edge**

Riley never sends the promised postcard. What would he write?

That the Nepal mission went south from the word go? That they lost the first squad in Kathmandu, the second en route to the Kali Gandaki River Gorge, and the third in the gorge itself? That after getting pummeled by a magic hailstorm of stones, Sam's chopper crashed into the rock face of the gorge?

No time to grieve. They went in and took out the Dhenuka-demon's nest.

Riley can't remember the firefight or how many demons he killed. But he remembers cleaning up afterwards: stacking up blue skinned bodies to build a pyre. And he remembers the oily stench, as demon flesh is consumed by diesel fire.

Back home, they bury empty coffins. His CO gives him a folded flag, a medal, and light duty, until Riley's "back on his feet". And he tells Riley to see a therapist.

Riley is a good soldier. Does what he's told. At first he hears it every night: the whup-whup-whup of the rotor blades, just before they slice into the unyielding rock, just before the trundling chopper, and everyone in it, is torn apart.

He hangs in there. Heals. But he never sleeps in rooms that have ceiling fans.

When Buffy contacts him almost a year later, to enlist his help for her vampire, Riley watches her from the shadows, but he doesn't talk to her.

After all, she might ask why he never sent that postcard. Or whether Nepal was fun.


End file.
